Sorry it's been so long since the last blog post.A disruption of my health has laid me out for the past week.I've been diagnosed with Meniere's Disease since 2004 and struggled to cope with its effects ever since.Some years, the vertigo and balance issues were quite manageable. In fact, 2006 through 2009 were fairly calm years that way. Meniere's is a dysfunction of the inner ear and comes with hearing-loss, ringing in the ears, vertigo and balance issues. For some patients, the symptoms are mild, and in others, quite severe. I consider myself mid-range. Although, as of late, it's been very severe.During these bad bouts, watching television or reading things via a computer screen is likely to trigger vertigo. So, as much as it impacts my creative projects, I have to shutdown and lay low for a bit. That never means that the project stagnates. Shari has been busy coordinating interviews and scouting locations. Peyton has been receiving feedback and asking direction on the next composition (which is to score a 60-second trailer) and I've still been doing research and planning throughout these difficult days. We even held a crew meeting a couple of days ago to plan out the next few weeks.our focus right now has shifted to the "supporting stars" of our film: King salmon.To present this story and have strong visual components to match up to the subject matter discussed during interviews, we'll need to get footage of wild salmon and their lifecycles. Wild Chinook (king) salmon are a challenge to film in the open sea, less challenging in the mouths of rivers and like "shooting ducks in a barrel," while spawning. The only variable is getting us and our gear to each of those points and gaining usable footage.That's our current tasking: find salmon, put camera underwater, film.We already know from research and pre-interviews that many of our sources will speak about the critical nature of wild salmon stocks. They will talk about "sustainability" and recovery, though the exact "how" of those issues will vary.Better practices, more fishing controls, farmed salmon, restoration of spawning habitat are all fluid parts of this story.One thing is readily agreed upon: without healthy king salmon, there will no longer be Southern Resident killer whales."No fish, no blackfish."Cheers and strength,- Rick Wood